Learning outcomes

We aim at teaching the use of philosophical terminology and the critical reading of philosophical texts, in order to acquire basic philosophical matters and concepts. Also, through seminars and debates, we aim at making postgraduates to acquire a skill to cross-examination.
A general knowledge of the history of modern and contemporary philosophy (XIX and XX Centuries) is presupposed and only some points will be specifically deepened. An attention to lexical research and an interest in a critical reading of philosophical texts and to arguments are very useful.

Program

Philosophies of Dialogue.
In XXth century some thinkers and trains of thought have proposed forms of “Socratic dialogue”. It is applied in various spheres: pedagogic (J. Dewey, L. Nelson, M. Nussbaum), philosophical (M. Buber, K. Jaspers), psyco-therapeutic (V. Frankl) e in the so-called “philosophical practices” (P. Hadot, L. Marinoff). In every one of these spheres Socratic dialogue is proposed as a methodical procedure and as an existential / relational attitude which is particularly efficacious, moreover – sometimes – as the prominent form of self-care. We aim at confronting with these contemporary restarts and verify, on Plato’s Dialogues, whether and how much this procedure, to the extent that it names itself “Socratic”, is indebted to the archetypical original model. This is in turn a prominent and indispensable form of the àskesis (or “spiritual exercise”) proper to Plato’s Socrates.

Bibliography:
a) General Part on the history of contemporary philosophy, particularly: Nietzsche; American pragmatism (Peirce, James, Dewey); phenomenology (Husserl, Scheler); German existential philosophy (Jaspers, Rosenzweig, Buber); Heidegger; birth and evolution of human sciences (psycholoy and psychoanalisis); new rhetoric; hermeneutics; practical philosophy.
Basic text: E. BERTI-F. VOLPI, Storia della filosofia. Ottocento e Novecento, Roma-Bari Laterza 1991 and subsequent editions.
b) Lecture Notes available at photocopy shops “Ateneo” and “La Rapida”:
Dispensa 1: Introduzione. Testi tratti dagli autori contemporanei;
Dispensa 2: Il dialogo socratico come pratica filosofica. Passi scelti e commentati dai Dialoghi di Platone (a c. di L. Napolitano)

-A text chosen among:
L.M. NAPOLITANO VALDITARA, Il sé, l’altro, l’intero. Rileggendo i Dialoghi di Platone, Milano-Udine Mimesis 2010;
L.M. NAPOLITANO VALDITARA Virtù, felicità e piacere nell’etica dei Greci, Verona aemme Edizioni 2014;
P. HADOT, Esercizi spirituali e filosofia antica, tr. it. Torino 2005;
M. C. NUSSBAUM, Non per profitto. Perché le democrazie hanno bisogno della cultura umanistica, tr. it. Bologna 2011.

Lessons will be available by e-learning.

Didactical Methods:
The course will be carried on by frontal lessons, with direct reading of the texts and following discussions. Therefore attendance at classes will be very useful and desirable, though obviously not compulsory.
The same program is valid for students who cannot attend lessons; nevertheless, they must get in touch with the teacher, in order to receive indications on adding texts, whose reading will compensate for lacking attendance: these texts will be agreed for every student, with regard to his previous knowledge, curriculum and interests.

Examination Methods

Ways of evaluation:
Some oral questions will be put to the student; he will be invited to read and comment some passages of the original texts already read together during classes.